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By Fred Guarino
The Lowndes Signal
Attorneys for Lowndes County triple murder case defendant, Deandra Marquis Lee, filed a motion in Lowndes County Circuit Court on Friday, Aug. 22 to delay his trial past Oct.14.
According to court records, “The defendant and his attorneys need additional time to adequately prepare for this case,” and, “In addition, the defense experts cannot be ready for trial by October 14, 2014.”
As a result the defendant “respectfully prays that this court will enter an order continuing this case until a later date.”
Lee is represented by attorneys Jerry L. Thornton of Hayneville and Logan R. Taylor of Hayneville.
Lowndes County Circuit Court Judge Terri Bozeman Lovell recently ordered a mental evaluation Lee,
Previously Lovell granted a defense motion on March 10 of this year to continue Lee’s trial date to the October term of court.
Lowndes County District Attorney Charlotte M. Tesmer said when contacted Monday, “We are ready to try this case to get closure for the victims’ families. But I do understand that it takes a great deal of preparation by the defense.”
Lee faces six capital murder charges in connection with the 2012 deaths of 9-year-old twins, Jordan and Taylor Dejerinett, from Montgomery, and their 73-year-old caretaker, Jack Mac Girdner of Hope Hull.
On June 5, 2012 the bodies were discovered by the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and the Alabama Bureau of Investigation (ABI) on a dirt road off of Alabama Highway 21 near Hayneville, three miles south of U.S. Highway 80. The three had been reported missing on Monday, June 4, 2012.
The defendant, Lee, was 22 at the time of the crime.